‘Twelve hours after leaving the Republican convention in Minnesota, McCain and Palin were cheered and applauded by a crowd of 1,000 or more who packed the street in front of the ice cream and chocolate store that was the backdrop for their appearance’ in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. 

The reason for the cheers and applause? They presented themselves perfectly as ‘a team of determined reformers eager to challenge Washington’s political establishment.’

“John McCain doesn’t run with the Washington herd,” McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin said. 

“It’s over. It’s over. It’s over for the special interests,” McCain himself promised. “We’re going to start working for the people of this country.”

“Change is coming, change is coming,” McCain said.

The visit to Cedarburg is part of an effort by Palin and McCain to visit small towns in America to show the people living in them that they understand and sympathize with them. Unlike the Democratic ticket, the Republican leaders want to reach out to people who “cling to guns and religion,” as one specific Democrat described Americans living in small towns several months ago.

As reported earlier at this website, Republicans seem to realize that they need to offer hope and change, just like Obama does. However, they should be quite specific about what kind of hope and change they envision for America and they should be conservative, yet pragmatical and independent-minded, about it. Running on experience and bitterness alone will not be suffice. Republicans have to offer Americans an alternative.

It took them several months to figure this out, but now that they have done so, they are quite effective in building the image they want to build.

It will be interesting to see what kind of specific details the two will offer Americans in the coming weeks. After all, one of the main criticisms against Obama has been and continues to be that his rhetoric and promises are void, empty. He talks about ‘hope’ and ‘change’ a lot, critics say, but he fails to define both terms and explain to voters how he will change Washinton and US policies (both domestic and foreign).

If McCain and Palin truly want to force Obama in defense, they should be both positive (as they are now) about their own goals and specific. Furthermore, voters deserve honesty; they need to know what they will vote for exactly. Elections are, after all, not about image but about policies.